Edict 42

Chapter 16 - Frank

Frank sat in the chief’s office since the secret police had stopped Sally and Mark the missing person case of Alina Cox had been put on suspension until further notice. It was so obvious everyone in the department was whispering about it. In all of that time Frank had been given no assignment, he was merely at work tossing a paper plane around. He guessed as he looked around the room that further notice had finally come. The room was spacious and there were many awards in the room for the chief if only he had the backbone to stand up for law and order. There were a few papers were on his desk but the one that stood was Alina Cox.

Frank knew he had to know more but was either being pressured from the outside into releasing the case. He knew that’s what he was going to hear today, it had been months and nothing but that was probably due to how high the priority was on the case to begin with. Dr. Cox’s husband had been moved from the police station, he had been rejected from being covered by main stream media. The family who had been posting search and handing out anything related to Dr. Cox were silenced. Large chunks of information either disappearing or being threatened with violence. What was the chief’s response to all of this? Nothing, nothing at all.

Was the woman already dead and they were merely covering it up? Then why go through all of this? What did she know that could cause this much obliteration? The government had IDs on everyone and the body tracking was also something that could have been done, not many people knew about this and it was not used, nor tracking her cellular phone. It was all too suspicious, to begin with. It had been tingling him from the beginning. The depth to this case and if he would actually be able to solve it. He had told her family and husband he wouldn’t give up.

The door opened behind Frank, before slowly creaking to a close. It didn’t seem that he had much of a decision in if to keep on going with it at least from this perspective.

The chief sat behind the desk, he pulled his chair in and placed his hands in front of him resting on the desk. He looked from the file with Alina and then held a stare with Frank for a long while. Frank returned the glare, he had known this man from since he was a kid. It didn’t matter if he got a little promotion that he could hardball him. The chief gave a deep sigh before finally speaking.

“Frank you’re off the case. We are going to move it to cold cases, there are no more leads on it. It could be that she got up and left, got tired of her family and husband.”

Bullshit Frank thought, he knew this was not nearly the truth of the matter. The chief was lying through his teeth and Frank’s brow raise in response but he said nothing.

There was a pause as the chief tried to read him. “You understand right? We can’t focus on something that isn’t working.”

“Tim, if it was your father that went missing or your mother? Would you like the police to just give up on you?”

“That’s---.”

“The first line of the police is to its people, you know this. I was the one who thought you this on the first day you stepped into this office, remember?”

The chief stumbled over himself a few times before gripping his hand tightly and finally finding his words.

“I am not here to debate with you, Frank, I am the chief and you will do what I say! This case is closed, there is nothing more to go on with it or to push it any further. Do you understand that? I need an answer from you.”

Frank nodded his head up and down.

“Good, now then.” He reorganized the papers seated on his desk and handed one to Frank. “This will be your new assignment.”

Frank gripped the paper in his hand. On it he realized that he had been reassigned to the worst place in the city, No Man’s Land.

“Why are you assigning me here?”

“You won’t be alone, you will have detective Mark with you, but its to help solve all the issues and problems here. We have to establish ourselves here and keep the city in order. Many of the people there haven’t switched over to immortality and many citzens may have given up hope in even seeing a police officer. We want you to work alongside those people that are there and give them hope.”

We? Frank thought, he looked at the paper again. He alone couldn’t fixed the problems there that was something it wouldn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out. In all honesty, it was like giving him a death sentence. No Man’s Land operated on its own terms, Sally lived on the brink of it in the smog area and he knew she helped some of the people there. Helping and trying to solve cases that people didn’t want solved were two different things. To much poking around would wake the sleeping beers and judging from the fact that this was another area. He was being sent under handed it wasn’t like he was actually serious about helping those people.

Frank got up from his chair. “Is that it?” his eyes locking with the chief.

“Yes, that’s it.”

“When do you want me to begin on this?”

“As soon as possible, we would even station you from today. I recommend that you go in undercover.”

Frank chuckled. “Go in undercover to people who had lived there whole lives there. That wouldn’t work. I would stick out like a sore thumb but thanks for the suggestion. I will figure it out.”

Frank clenched his fist and left the office not looking back or waiting for a reply.

#

“What a joke,” Frank said as he drove his way down there. “I can’t believe that’s what he turned into, the man just doesn’t have any balls anymore. What happened to the kid I use to know? No wonder Sally slapped him in the face. He really disappointed me, he really did. Its hard for me not to see him as a kid because I knew him so long but this… this is more than an insult.”

Mark was in the car beside him but had been staying quiet the entire time. Frank had noticed him staring out the window every now and then.

“What was it that you had to tell me, Mark?” Frank asked tapping his hand on the steering wheel.

“I will show you when we get there, lets make a stop at Sally first and then we go from there.”

“Ok, what do you think about this whole thing? I mean you think he’s been threatened or something?”

“I don’t know about that, probably paid to shut up more than anything else. I know you knew him before me but the chief in my opinion Frank has always been a pushover and a kissass. Hence why he has that position, I don’t know how things were before since you were working there so long but since I have been there compared to where I was transferred from, there was a big difference in many things especially the workload and respect for police.”

The closer they got there the shift in buildings and the road started to reflect this. Frank had been swearing everytime his car dipped into a hole. Maybe he should of just gotten a station car instead of driving his usual car.

“We’re almost there Frank, go straight here and then make a turn by the graffiti building.”

Frank obliged as he came to a stop in a parking lot that resembled what looked like a dump beside it was Sally’s car. He parked the car and they both got out. The stench of the place hit Frank strong but he paid it no mind as he saw the lifeless eyes looking back at him. It was hard for him to look away it was like they were taking a part of him. The part that he had signed up for, to serve and protect.

Sally got out the car to greet them and with her was---

“This is Dr. Cox, I think you might be interested in what she has to say. I didn’t want to meet up anywhere else. Mark did you ensure that you weren’t followed. No one was following us I made sure. We made a few stops before coming here.”

Frank stepped forward towards the woman before coming to a stop inches away. Her hair had changed and she did look different from the picture. He pulled it out and looked her over to just to make sure but it was her. There were some glaring features.

“ Dr. Cox ,” Frank began, “What are you doing here? It’s the government isn’t it?”

“Yes, the government, the secret police, the world has gone mad. I can’t go back to my normal life.”

“What do you mean?”

“The CFG2 and the water, they are trying to kill of the population,” Sally interjected.

“What!?”

“Its true,” Alina said, “I know it sounds hard to believe.”

“Lets get in the car,” Mark said.

Frank’s eyes fell to those around them noticing them listening to the conversation. “Yes, lets do that.”

They proceed to get into Sally’s car. Sally sat in the driver’s seat, Frank beside her in the passenger’s seat and Alina and Frank were in the back seat. Alina explained to Frank everything that had happened to her from the time she was kidn*pped to now. She also informed him of all of her strange experiences and bits of her dream coming through. Frank looked at her with skeptisim but certain things he couldn’t ignore. The fact that the government was trying to erase her from being anything prominent. Why they would release Dr. Matters so easily.

“I have two requests first I want to be able to communicate this information to the public and second we need to kidnap Dr. Matters to stop the project from moving forward.”

“Would that be enough?”

“We are in the lead, all the main testing is done here with the father of immortality and the first parasite.”

“You know we always hear about this father, but I have never once seen this man. Is he actually dead, I always find it hard to believe a man finds immortality and doesn’t take it himself.”

“The father was a lie, there was a man at Bostic Lab to pose as him but the truth of it is. The truth is the father was an alien that has been experimented on for years.”

Sally spoke, “An Alien those things exist? I thought that---.”

“That they don’t exist?” Alina asked.

“Yes,” Sally said.

“We discovered that he didn’t die and his cells would keep replicating from the parasite living inside him even now he’s still alive to a degree. Almost like in a coma but his makeup and ours are different. We humans have merely extracted an inferior product of this immortality. One that in the end we can not live with these people.” Alina pointed to the ones inside the room, “They will be the lucky ones. If they succeed and the parasite triggers or rather awakens it will try to take over the brain of the human.”

Frank hand wiped over his face as his grand daughters came to mind. “It’s only if they take the CFG2 that this would happen that they would be taken over. This, this sounds bad both ways. I don’t even know what to think on this.”

Alina rubbed her head and bit her lip. “There isn’t much time to think, we have to act and we have to destroy the lab.”